This archive report was first published on 2 November 2019.
On November 2, 2019, the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) faulted the State for its freeze on hiring, terming it retrogressive and a wrong signal to the private sector employers.
COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli said that instead of fixing the vice of corruption and mismanagement of public resources, the government had taken measures that were detrimental to the economy.
“The government should identify other ways of minimising expenditure and not just coming up with policies that are paralysing labour force in Kenya,” Atwoli said in a statement to the press.
The government recently directed ministries to freeze recruitment of staff in the next three years unless approved by the National Treasury.
According to COTU, the directive is “uncalled for in the modern era of governance where employment is to the demands and needs for the industry rather a normality.”
Atwoli further stated that the State directive was not only Draconian but against labour laws, and that it is unconstitutional for the acting CS Treasury, Ukur Yatani, who is also the CS Labour, to make such a declaration.
“It is one of the greatest undoing for civil servants by a minister who understands the challenges in the labour movement better than any other CS,” Atwoli said.
